Holding Fast to the Hard Saying
Third Saturday of Paschaltide Acts 9:31-42 Psalm 115: 12-13, 14-15, 16-17 John 6: 60-69 A Eucharistic Lectio Divina If in your lectio divina this past...
The Secret of Mary
Tomorrow is the liturgical memorial of Saint Louis–Marie Grignion de Montfort. His writings have been a lamp unto my feet and a fire in my...
Holiness and Beauty: Tying the Knot
For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and...
Blessed Maria Rafael Arnáiz Barón
A Gifted Boy Today is also the memorial of Blessed Rafael Arnáiz Barón (1911- 1938), a Trappist Cistercian Oblate of the Abbey of San Isidoro...
Never To Depart From Her Counsels
I just came up to my room from the basilica after having celebrated the 6:30 p.m. parish Mass. Today is the liturgical memorial of Our...
Saint Mark
Saint Mark, Evangelist 1 Peter 5: 5b-14 Psalm 88: 2-3, 6-7, 16-17 Mark 16: 15-20 Mark and Peter Tradition calls Saint Mark the interpreter of...
No Peace Without Chastity
A Holy Abbess The Benedictine–Cistercian calendar commemorates today Saint Franca of Piacenza, virgin (1173–1218). Franca was an intrepid monastic reformer. After enduring sufferings and persecutions...
“I will never be able to thank enough”
Blessed Maria Gabriella was “a little soul.” She has affinities with Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, Blessed Elizabeth of...
Blessed Maria Gabriella dell’Unità
An Offering to the Father Blessed Maria Gabriella Sagghedu, a Cistercian nun of Grottaferrata in Italy, died on April 23rd in 1939. Pope John Paul...
The Wounds of Christ Applied to the Soul
“See my hands and my feet” (Lk 24:39). Jesus would have us contemplate his holy and glorious wounds. The wounds of the Risen Christ are...
Our Wounded God
Christ’s Holy and Glorious Wounds I was present in Saint Peter’s Square last Sunday when, in the course of Holy Mass, Pope Benedict XVI preached...
Holy Mass at the Tomb of Saint Francis
The high point of my pilgrimage to Assisi with Leonard and Mark was the privilege of celebrating Holy Mass at the tomb of Saint Francis...
At the Carceri: The Face of Christ and His Open Side
Yesterday morning, together with Leonard and Mark, my friends from the U.S., I visited the Carceri or hermitages hidden on the wooded slopes of Mount...
Sunset in Assisi
I took this photo after attending Vespers and Adoration with my friends Leonard and Mark at San Damiano in Assisi on Monday evening. The friars...
Saint Benedict–Joseph Labre
“I have forsaken my home, I have cast off mine inheritance: I am poor and needy, but the Lord hath taken me up” (Jer 12:7)....
Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor
Here at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, I have the privilege of living just a few steps away from the Chapel of the Sacred Relics where...
O Blessed Wound!
On the occasion of the Holy Father’s 80th birthday and in response to his invitation to contemplate the wounded Side of Christ, I offer again...
Quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius
Haec est dies quam fecit Dominus “This is the day the Lord has made, let us be glad and rejoice in it!” (Ps 117:24). For...
Mane Nobiscum, Domine
Jacopo Pontormo painted this Supper at Emmaus for the Carthusian monastery of Galluzzo sometime between 1523 and 1527. He includes Carthusian monks in the scene,...
More Photos of Pasquetta 2007 in Sepiccciano
The 17th century Palazzo Onoratelli was the home of my great–grandmother Emma Onoratelli Barbato. The stucco ornamentation in the baroque style — with smiling angels...